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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
post modern - many layers and hidden meaning, I would love to hear a professional talk about this book
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
An interesting PoMo novella. Auster's first novel/second book/first of his 'New York Trilogy', 'City of Glass' is simultaneously a detective novel, an exploration of the author/narrative dynamic, and a treatise on language. I liked parts, loved parts, and finished the book thinking the author had written something perhaps more interesting than important.
My favorite parts were the chapters where Auster (actual author Auster) through the narrator Quinn acting as the detective Auster explored Stillman's book: 'The Garden and the Tower: Early Visions of the New World'. I also enjoyed the chapter where Auster (character Auster) and Quinn (acting as detective Auster) explored Auster's (character Auster) Don Quixote ideas. Those chapters reminded me obliquely (everything in City of Glass is oblique) of Gaddis.
In the end, however, it all seemed like Auster had read Gaddis wanted to write a PoMo novel to reflect the confusing nature of the author/narrator/translator/editor role(s) of 'Don Quixote', set it all in Manhatten, and wanted to make the prose and story fit within the general framework of a detective novel. He pulled it off and it all kinda worked. I'll say more once I finish the next two of the 'New York Trilogy'.
My favorite parts were the chapters where Auster (actual author Auster) through the narrator Quinn acting as the detective Auster explored Stillman's book: 'The Garden and the Tower: Early Visions of the New World'. I also enjoyed the chapter where Auster (character Auster) and Quinn (acting as detective Auster) explored Auster's (character Auster) Don Quixote ideas. Those chapters reminded me obliquely (everything in City of Glass is oblique) of Gaddis.
In the end, however, it all seemed like Auster had read Gaddis wanted to write a PoMo novel to reflect the confusing nature of the author/narrator/translator/editor role(s) of 'Don Quixote', set it all in Manhatten, and wanted to make the prose and story fit within the general framework of a detective novel. He pulled it off and it all kinda worked. I'll say more once I finish the next two of the 'New York Trilogy'.
Astounding. Read it in one sitting (or rather standing. I found it's easier to concentrate reading when I'm leaning on the door frame and occasionally gazing outside to look at the plants and the sky.) It's exhilarating to finally finish reading something after being in a reading slump these past few months.
The theme that is immediately apparent is that of the double. Doppelgangers, aliases, that whole thing. The discussions about the words are interesting. The Paul Stillman character was interesting. One of the main character's discussions with Peter Stillman reminded me of that episode in Garcia Marquez's 'Cien Anos ...' (R.I.P.) where the people were stricken by the sickness of forgetting. The episode about the child suffering for the greater good reminds me of the story 'Those Who Walk Away from Omelas' by Le Guin. The episode where the character tried to minimize his eating to focus more on the job, reminded me of Kafka's 'A Hunger Artist.' Keeping up with the theme of the double is the structure of the book itself. Paul Auster writes a book about an author (Daniel Quinn) who writes detective stories under an alias, who somehow gets hired by a woman, who assumed he was a detective named Paul Auster (again the whole double thing). And it gets crazier from there.
Overall the story very much lived up to the hype I've been reading about. This is the second story of his I've read after Moon Palace.
The theme that is immediately apparent is that of the double. Doppelgangers, aliases, that whole thing. The discussions about the words are interesting. The Paul Stillman character was interesting. One of the main character's discussions with Peter Stillman reminded me of that episode in Garcia Marquez's 'Cien Anos ...' (R.I.P.) where the people were stricken by the sickness of forgetting. The episode about the child suffering for the greater good reminds me of the story 'Those Who Walk Away from Omelas' by Le Guin. The episode where the character tried to minimize his eating to focus more on the job, reminded me of Kafka's 'A Hunger Artist.' Keeping up with the theme of the double is the structure of the book itself. Paul Auster writes a book about an author (Daniel Quinn) who writes detective stories under an alias, who somehow gets hired by a woman, who assumed he was a detective named Paul Auster (again the whole double thing). And it gets crazier from there.
Overall the story very much lived up to the hype I've been reading about. This is the second story of his I've read after Moon Palace.
I only read the first story, City of Glass (from the New York Trilogy), to its completion, and unfortunately I was rather underwhelmed. While the opening scene was striking, and the play on authorship could've been an interesting device to further the story - I just felt it didn't go anywhere, it lacked a purpose other than the experimental style of the author, and possibly an open question to the reader of story tellers, authorship, the blend of voices and interpretations - but not putting much of a spin on it himself. The actual writing was in parts unexpected and compelling - for example the end of the story City of Glass, not the finale end but the latter section of the story took an, for me, unexpected turn and was almost fun to read. But in most regards I felt the writing lacked any spirit, filled with long descriptions of walking that street, crossing that boulevard, without any narration on the protagonists emotion, without enough description of anything in the passing to give a non-native of New York any sense of time and place. The scenes where interactions are the focus are certainly stronger in my opinion, these are the scenes the author lives in I feel - where there's passion for literature, for history, for human nature and mystery, for anything worth reflecting on or worth reading about. But ultimately, I was bored a large part of this story and I could only get through a few pages of the second (Ghosts) so I decided to call it quits. Hi Auster, bye Auster.
Again, I read this in high-school and I don't remember any of it.